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Selling a book with Apple’s iBook Author program is now a one-way ticket to Apple being the only place you can sell the book. Maybe selling your book on iBooks isn’t such a great deal after all.

Dan Wineman of Venomous Porridge went to publish his first book from within the iBooks Author application when he was met with a curious notice. Once a book is made available for sale in the iBookstore, it can only be sold through that venue.

(ii) if your Work is provided for a fee (including as part of any subscription-based product or service), you may only distribute the Work through Apple and such distribution is subject to the following limitations and conditions: (a) you will be required to enter into a separate written agreement with Apple (or an Apple affiliate or subsidiary) before any commercial distribution of your Work may take place; and (b) Apple may determine for any reason and in its sole discretion not to select your Work for distribution.

Ugh, the worst part is that you never agree to anything when you install the application. The EULA never appears when you install. Apparently, you implicitly agree to the EULA simply by using the software. If you’ve worked for weeks on a book only to discover you can’t sell it anywhere else once you publish it to the iBookstore, you’re gonna be pissed.

Apple is jumping into the world of publishing here. If you had a deal with Random House to sell your book, you wouldn’t be able to have Penguin Publishing also sell it. These deals, however, are transparent. The restrictions don’t just appear as you prepare to submit your manuscript. Apple is assuming rights over your content in the worst possible way. [Venomous Porridge]

How much does it cost to license Microsoft’s latest and greatest mobile OS? A fair bit it seems. While numbers have been bandied around before, this is the first time a per-handset figure was to an internal employee — this time, the portfolio manager for ZTE UK, no less. Pegged at $27 per ZTE smartphone, TrustedReviews managed to get those licensing beans spilled at the glitzy London launch of the company’s first Windows Phone, the ZTE Tania. The fee flies in the face of open-source Android, which requires no price to install on handsets. Microsoft, however, is still keeping an eye on its Google rival, collecting patent licensing fees from several major phone manufacturers. ZTE hasn’t yet commented on the figure.

It’s always helpful when tech start-ups scheme new ways for you to burn through that bank account. Like YBUY, the membership-only site that charges a monthly fee in exchange for trying out the latest and greatest in gadgetry, like an iPad 2 or Xbox 360, sans shipping fees. The fresh-out-of-beta portal offers approved users the ability to return or purchase the pre-selected goods after a 30 day trial period, with that recurring charge going towards the full retail price if you choose to opt-in. Its co-founders claim to curate the ever-changing roster of high-end kit, taking into account the best product reviews (ahem) and even featuring certified refurbs. So, what’s the catch? Well, there doesn’t really appear to be any. It’s simply up to you to curb that tech enthusiasm and keep your credit card balance resting peacefully at zero.

Credit cards have been a staple for retail rewards programs for decades (you know, like that Visa card they try to make you sign up for every time you go to Gap). They’ve been an effective way to reward customers, and for retailers to get additional funding.

2. As the programs get more expensive, banks will offset costs in other areas. This will result in either less beneficial terms for retailers, or higher fees for consumers. Retailers may have to increase their own rewards programs to remain competitive

3. Retailers’ relationships with their customers could be hurt, because banks (who are now in control of many retailers’ credit businesses) could squeeze consumers. Since the programs are branded for retailers, not the banks, consumers would deem them responsible.

Credit Suisse instead suggests that the answer to these woes is simple. Switch over to programs based around membership fees or other upfront investments. “Going forward, we think the emerging trend will be the need for consumers to “invest” in loyalty programs, thereby creating a “vested interest,” says the report.

So what brands are doing it right so far?

Amazon — The Amazon Prime membership program has been vastly successful. Consumers pay an annual membership fee of $79, and get shipping benefits, free use of Amazon Instant Video and perks for their Kindle.

Costco — The largest membership warehouse club in the world has three levels of membership. There’s a $55 annual fee for businesses, a $55 ‘Gold’ card for individuals and a $55 executive member upgrade, which gives folks a 2% discount on most purchases.

Sam’s Club — Walmart’s warehouse subsidiary has a similar system, with a $40 per year Advantage card for individuals ($100 for Advantage Plus which offers extra savings) and a $35 per year Business membership ($100 for Business Plus).

Macy’s — “Thanks for Sharing” is a program that’s working for Macy’s to generate loyalty. It requires a $25 upfront investment (which is actually a donation to charity), in exchange for rewards.

Target — The REDcard is a ‘hybrid’ method which has been working well since the retailer started it up in 2010. It offers 5% savings on everything and includes shipping benefits.

These programs all capitalize on the concept of creating that “vested interest.” Customers, having already paid a set of promised benefits, will be more likely to keep spending to use those benefits that they’ve already paid for. They’ll keep coming back.

The next-day shipping will apparently be combined with Google Product Search, which today lets users find products and compare them across different e-commerce sites to get the lowest price. When people buy a product from one of the sites after finding it on Google Product Search, they’ll get an offer for one day shipping for a low fee, the Journal says.

Google won’t be running an e-commerce site or stocking products in warehouses like Amazon does, but will instead create a system that figures out which retail partner’s stores are nearest to a customer and have the product in stock. Then it would team up with UPS and local couriers for delivery.

At Engadget HQ, we takegreatcare not to trumpet the claims of a web survey, as it’s always difficult to tell who’s actually doing the surveying — and even if we could, consumer surveys are all about a “what if” that may never actually come to pass. That said, it looks like maybe ABC is conducting a study asking folks whether they’d be interested in a subscription to an ABC.com streaming video service, and maybe that service might have a wide variety ABC shows, past and present, fully on-demand. Sound familiar? Interestingly, the subscription would seem to be offered alongside the existing free service, and both paid and free would have advertising, though reduced by 20 percent for those coughing up the fee. You can find a list of potentially potential shows included in the gallery below, forwarded to us by an anonymous tipster; we tried to take the survey ourselves, but were promptly rejected for our love of FlashForward.

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Greater than three (3) days before a flight: $0 change/cancellation fees

Less than three (3) days before a flight: JetBlue’s standard change/cancel fees apply

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Digital Consigliere

Dr. Augustine Fou is Digital Consigliere to marketing executives, advising them on digital strategy and Unified Marketing(tm). Dr Fou has over 17 years of in-the-trenches, hands-on experience, which enables him to provide objective, in-depth assessments of their current marketing programs and recommendations for improving business impact and ROI using digital insights.